A mixed bag of babies and a blog

05/20/2010

Observations of a thirty-something

A friend of mine posted this on Facebook—Observation of a twenty-something Facebook user: when I hide all the updates from people either posting baby photos or playing Farmville, Facebook becomes a ghost town.

This made me laugh, but it also got me thinking. I was anti-facey space for a long long time. I first heard about Facebook when I was working with a recent high school graduate, and so I labeled it a teenybopper phenomenon and ignored it all together. Until one day everyone was on it, and friends kept asking me to join. Always the joiner (not really), I was convinced that it would be an easy way for me to share photos and videos of my girls. Begrudgingly I signed up, and I use it often. But I’m not an over-sharer. I post photos and videos when I think they’re particularly cute or amusing, but I don’t do regular updates. Rather, I comment on others who say funny things or do even stupider things and write about it. Now I have my blog, which I suppose is a new outlet for me to over-share, but this is intellectual, right? Maybe not, but I like to think that it’s more than just poop and smiling babies.

Back to the thinking part. Because this drawn-out thought was about more than just my use of Facebook. How I got from having my own observations as a twenty-something, who rolled her eyes at too much baby talk and not enough party talk, to a mom of two that will inevitably discuss how my daughter just rolled over and farted. I like to think that I’m not stuck in that “mom” box, or that I bore anyone I’m with that doesn’t have children. But don’t expect me not to talk about my girls because they’re really friggin cute. A lot cuter than the boys I used to date, which is what I talked about in those twenty-something dating days. I think I bored just as many people with stories of nights out, drinks drank, and late mornings sleeping off the hangovers. I wake up just as tired these days, but for a different reason. A better reason.

Don’t get me wrong, if you give me a Red Bull and Vodka and hand me a mic for karaoke, you wouldn’t dare look at me and think, “She’s just a mom.” Instead, you’ll think, “Wow, she’s a drunk mom.”

Observation of a thirty-something Facebook user: I have never heard of or played Farmville.

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Yes! This totally resonates for me, Michele. I'm at an age where half of my facebook friends are all party, all the time, and the other half posts things about their children's poo. I'm in between. Starting a family wasn't even on my radar (yeah...totally unplanned...oops!) so I went out a lot. Now, I'm preparing to be a mommy. But, like you, I'm hoping I won't overshare on facebook. They'll have to go to my blog if that's what they're lookin' for ;)